Coleford Vets 8 Wrington Redhill Vets 0

With the Reserve Team game cancelled on the Saturday, Nico Anderson was looking forward to the Veterans fixture on the Sunday. That was until, scraping the ice from his car and entering the post code into his sat nav to find that he had an hour and ten minutes to travel down tiny Mendip lanes to get to Coleford. His mood didn’t improve on his arrival when he realised without James Marshall, he was the only forward in the squad and had to lead the line on his own. It was also a blow to lose top scorer Dan McMullen who was only fit enough to go in goal. Without the midfield engine room of Holland and Bradley, it was a much changed team that took to the pitch but still with plenty of quality in the side to be competitive. Playing down the slope and with the wind, the visitors looked to ease themselves into the game but with the bobbly surface it was not easy to play passing football. Coleford were also full of running and tigerish in the tackle which was a shock to Wrington who had until now, an unbeaten introduction to Veterans football. The continuous pressing of the home side made it difficult to get wing backs Thomas and Clements into the game and once moves broke down they found themselves too high up the pitch leaving the defence over run. Within 10 minutes Wrington were 2 down and needed all the experience of Curtis and Lenny to steady the ship before it became a rout. Wrington started to get Thomas and Balicki into the game and Anderson’s top corner finish pulled one back. However, Coleford responded immediately and were awarded a very soft penalty. With Dave Valle and Chris Morley showing plenty of character and Jon Flynn being his usual competitive self, Wrington pulled another one back before half time through a long range wind assisted lob by Thomas with the keeper out of his area.

Wrington tried to regroup at halftime and reverted to four at the back. However, as they lined up for the second half, facing uphill and against a strong wind the enormity of the task facing them became clear. Straight from the kick off a cross into the Wrington penalty area resulted in a scrum with the ball bouncing all over the place before ending in the net. As always seems to be the case, the ball seemed to bounce for and all the decisions went the way of the attacking team and it became a siege with chance after chance only being repelled by a number of great saves from McMullen in goal. To everyone’s credit no ones’ head dropped and Wrington scrapped to the end and even had chances of their own, but eventually the dam burst and Coleford ran in 3 or 4 goals to give the score a slightly unflattering look. With Colefords’ generous hospitality and a goal to his name…..Anderson braved the hour and 10 minutes back consoled by the fact that Coleford had fielded a very strong side with several Frome Town veterans worthy of losing your unbeaten record to.